Behind the scenes: Patrón Secret Dining Society

Patrón Secret Dining visited London in the first European edition of the tequila brand's global programme, which brings together a celebrated local chef and bartender to curate an innovative cocktail-paired menu.

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The London event was held last night (23 March), at the historic MC Motors venue in East London, with the progamme set to tour Israel, France and Spain later this year.

Patrón put innovation at the centre of this brand experience and brought togehter culinary forward thinkers from the industry, including Douglas McMaster from zero-waste restaurant Silo and cocktail expert Iain Griffiths from Mr Lyan.

Each dish echoed McMasters’ mantra of "waste is a failure of the imagination" and featured up to four predominantly plant-based core ingredients, carefully paired with cocktail serves from Griffiths showcasing the versatility of the Patrón expressions. The evening opened with tastes of Silo’s famous sourdough and home-churned butter seasoned with lava salt, alongside a trio of fermented artichoke, seaweed kraut and Silo kimchi. This was accompanied by Griffiths’ Patrón Reposado tequila cocktail of spent tomatoes and umami vinegar clarified with milk.In true secret dining style, McMasters introduced two surprise dishes to the menu on the night including a savoury cheese fondue dish and a pirate chocolate fondant.

Global CMO for Patrón Spirits International Lee Applbaum told Event: "We launched the Patrón Secret Dining Society eight years ago in the US and this year we will host dinners in 20 international cities across Europe, Asia and the Middle East and Africa. The event is about bringing together up-and-coming chefs and mixologists from each city to surprise and delight consumers, trade and press at invitation-only dinners.

"We do larger scale events such as Art of Patrón for 500 guests and sponsorship, which has a broader reach, but these dinners allow for much more intimate and richer conversations around the product between interested parties.

"Our marketing focus is around education - educating consumers and trade about the virtues of a hand crafted artisanal ultra premium tequila that is materially different to what they may have consumed back in their university days as a shot. It’s not only about redefining the premium tequila category, but premium spirits altogether."